


When It Rains

by Thorton (3370318)



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Library, Developing Relationship, M/M, g...gay... it's gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-04-12 07:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19127650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3370318/pseuds/Thorton
Summary: “How is this: you allow me to stay until midnight, three nights a week, and in return… on days when it rains, I will allow you to walk me home, and I will tell you something about myself.”Matsuda, an employee in a university library, develops an interest in the enigmatic graduate student L.





	When It Rains

**Author's Note:**

> this is (potentially) my first multi-chapter fic in... a whiiile. nothing too ambitious though, i've planned for 5 or 6 chapters. so, we'll see how that goes.
> 
> i've noticed there's a real lack of multi-chapter fics for this pairing, which is a bummer because basically all i can think about is how i enjoy exploring their relationship. hopefully this scratches an itch for someone else, too... lol. 
> 
> i've had this first chapter written for like... months, and planned out the rest, so maybe finally just putting it out into the world will motivate me to work on it more, ahah. okay, that's all. thanks for reading.

“Hey, um… could you come out of the closet now?” were not words Matsuda expected to have to say to anyone, let alone words he would have to repeat four days in a row. Yet, at nearly eleven at night on a Thursday, he peered into the utility closet and down at a man who sat cross-legged on the floor. Life pulled him in strange directions.

By some circumstance after his graduation, for example, Matsuda began to work in the university library. The pay was decent, the students were tolerable, and on a typical day he kept his head down and got his job done without drama or insults hurled in his direction. Maybe he wasn’t doing much that involved the heroics and panache of his neglected criminal justice degree, but there was one guilty pleasure he could capitalize on during his usual work routine: eavesdropping on all the juicy gossip.

At any given moment, Matsuda knew most of who was involved with who, which parties to frequent, and which to avoid. He’d listened into more than his fair share of tragic life stories, and watched the guts spill out of countless freshmen slain by a deadline. All things considered, it should have slaked the worst of his desires to poke his nose in the business of others.

Except, at the start of the academic year, an enigmatic new student began to frequent the library, and Matsuda just couldn’t figure out a thing about him. The guy, lank and gaunt, had the look of a specter. The way other patrons avoided him, one would think there was an invisible barrier around him constructed to keep others out. His phlegmatic disposition and his ability to command the space around him suggested that he was in his mid-twenties, maybe a year or two short of Matsuda’s own age. Of course, all of those qualities made for an allure that kept Matsuda’s eyes glued to him as he whiled away his days and sorted books. In the least, it was not an inconspicuous admiration.

Somewhat ashamed, Matsuda wondered if he contributed to the guy’s apparent newfound desire to camp out in closets. 

Other patrons straggled out well ahead of closing time today, on account of the way the sky had darkened and rumbled with the promise of a downpour. Sure enough, rain now streaked the windows and cast dappled shadows over the dim room, which added a certain ambience to the scene Matsuda walked in on. Perhaps not a romantic one.

To the man’s credit, he rose to his feet without protestation and brushed off his jeans. Then he tucked his laptop into a bag, slung the strap over his shoulder, and moved past Matsuda with a simple nod of his head. Matsuda stared after him for a few long moments before he found his voice again. Matsuda held his tongue the previous three days he found the guy tucked away in odd corners, but today he decided that he had enough precedent to pry.

“Wait! Are you doing okay?”

The man stopped in his tracks and stuck his hands in his pockets. “What do you mean?” he said, with a tone so distinguished that Matsuda felt himself caught off his guard a second time.

“I mean, uh. You keep hiding in here, and it’s kind of… troubling. Also, we close at 10:30, so…” 

“My apologies. I don’t intend to be disruptive,” the guy said, but Matsuda couldn’t help but frown in response. What exactly seemed well-mannered about the way he squatted in a closet? As if he could sense Matsuda’s distaste, the man shifted on his feet and walked away. “I will find another place to study.”

“I don’t want to scare you off or anything,” Matsuda added, with a nervous chuckle. When that earned him no response, he followed the dark-haired man and called after him. “Are you going home by yourself?”

The guy stiffened and cast a tired look over his shoulder. “What business is it of yours?”

“Er! Don’t take it the wrong way. It’s just… late, and rainy… so if you don’t mind waiting around for a few more minutes, I can walk you to the station.”

A few moments ticked by, but Matsuda took the way that the fellow pulled out a nearby chair and sat down to be an affirmation, and made haste to collect his coat and bag. He pulled out his umbrella and used it to gesture to the back. “All right, I’m all set.”

Matsuda proceeded past the rows of shelves and through the offices to the back exit, which he motioned his companion through as he punched in the security code.

“Um, I’m Matsuda, by the way. Matsuda Touta. I work at the library on most days… well, I guess you know that.”

“My name is L.”

“Elle?” Matsuda echoed. It evoked the imagery of American actresses in his mind.

“L,” the man repeated, and made the shape of the letter with his thumb and forefinger. “That’s all. You can call me L.”

“Oh, okay,” Matsuda said. Avant-garde, but the outlandishness of the choice suited the strange man’s sensibilities, if Matsuda had anything to go off of.

They were exposed to the rainfall as soon as they set foot outside, so Matsuda unfurled his umbrella and popped it open. Heat rose in his face as he held out his arm to tip it over L’s head. “Here. We can…?”

L wrapped an awkward but firm grip around the handle and pried it out of Matsuda’s hand, and sauntered ahead without a second thought. Matsuda balked, but soon pulled the collar of his jacket up to attempt to shield himself from the worst of the drizzle. 

“Oh,” he said, and winced. Matsuda jogged to catch up, then attempted to match L’s pace. “Uh, sorry if it’s weird to ask, but are you new here? At the… a new student, I mean?”

L looked at him out of the corner of his eye, and as if in an act of mercy, tilted the umbrella to shield Matsuda from an onslaught of rain blown in his direction. “Yes. I started graduate school this year,” he answered.

“Really?” Matsuda raised his eyebrows. “You finished undergrad, then…”

“Does that come as a surprise?”

“No! I don’t mean that in a bad way… er, I was more wondering… you seem kind of distant. Hiding in a closet and all…? I see that type of behavior in sheltered kids sometimes, but…”

Matsuda’s laugh trailed off into an uncomfortable, strangled noise when he glanced over and saw L square his shoulders. The barrier went up, and Matsuda could almost feel the force of it attempt to repel him. A smarter man would have turned, walked home in the rain, and accepted the loss of his umbrella as the cost of his social blunder. Matsuda, however, stood his ground.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to offend… or be presumptuous, or anything. I just wanted to know if I… if I could do anything to make you more comfortable? We could strike a deal or something, so you can get your work done, and I don’t have to keep checking closets to make sure you don’t get stuck in the building.”

Despite the offer that hung in the air, the two walked in silence for several blocks. The weight of a potential rejection got heavier and heavier the longer it lasted, and Matsuda felt as if he would bow under the pressure and excuse himself at any moment. Fortunately, before that could happen, L decided to grace him with an answer.

“Fine. I’ve thought about it. The truth is I am not fond of being around other people, but there are reference materials I need that I am not allowed to take out of the library. That necessitates my presence there, or else I would do my work at home. If you allow me to check out those materials--”

“Nope,” Matsuda replied, then squeezed his eyes shut. He feared such a rejection from L, yet volleyed one back at him without a thought. “Er… sorry. I can’t do that, can’t risk them getting lost or damaged. Then it’d be my head, you know?”

“I see,” L said, and the frown on his face made Matsuda’s heart sink into his stomach. “Let me continue to stay after hours, then.”

“Huh?”

“Let me stay past closing. I won’t tamper with anything. If I do, you can consider our deal broken, and you can kick me out whenever you want.”

“Well… I’d probably still have to be there, you know. I can’t give you my keys or anything. That’s a liability, too, and all…”

“Stay with me until midnight, three nights a week,” L proposed. Matsuda admired his consideration of contingency, or perhaps his ability to negotiate. “That would be enough time for me, I think.”

“Hm… maybe, but what’s in it for me?” 

“You want something,” L said, and placed his hand on his chin. He rubbed his thumb across his lower lip. “Hm. Yes, of course you would… how is this: you allow me to stay until midnight, three nights a week, and in return… on days when it rains, I will allow you to walk me home, and I will tell you something about myself.”

Matsuda pressed his hands to his face to conceal his scandalous blush. The offer presented sounded transactional enough, but… could it mean that L was actually interested in him? When an opportunity to read too much into something presented itself to him, Matsuda would take it.

“You know what? Sure,” he replied, and couldn’t help but beam. “Only on days when it rains?”

“That’s right. Do you agree to those conditions?”

“Absolutely. Not a problem.”

It would be a problem. Matsuda knew that the library director and campus security wouldn’t be too keen on bending rules if they found out, but he would think his way through it tomorrow. Things would smooth over one way or another, he thought.

L gave him another curious look, but diverted his gaze and dangled the umbrella towards Matsuda. He held it pinched between his fingers until the man took it back and caught sight of the sign that pointed to the station entrance ahead. “Oh, looks like we’re here...”

“So it does,” L replied. He walked a bit further to stand under the building’s overhang before he gave Matsuda a proper goodbye. “I’ll see you around, Matsuda-san.” 

For some reason, Matsuda’s heart fluttered up and into his throat.

“Um, y-... yeah,” he offered in return, but by the time he got the words out, the wind carried them off with the rain as L breezed past the ticket gate and out of sight. 

Matsuda turned and walked home with his umbrella held to his chest and frivolous thoughts in his head.


End file.
